Revision as of 23:40, 21 December 2008

Eclipse CDT can be used as a multi-feature editor and debugger for gnucash. Eclipse is a Java IDE but has a C/C++ project which has become quite mature. See www.eclipse.org/cdt/

Getting eclipse to work with gnucash

Precondition: Check out the sources. It might be best to make sure first that gnucash compiles and installs, before starting over with eclipse.

1. Download Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers from [1] and extract to some folder
2. Start eclipse
3. Create a new C-Project: File->New -> Empty C-Project:
   1. Location: enter the path to the existing source folder (e.g. C:\soft\gnucash\repos)
   2. deselect "Show project types and toolsets only if they are supported by the platform"
   3. Select Toolchain: "MinGW GCC"
4. Import include files: This is somehow ugly because you must set each directory you require.

   To browse the .h-includefiles you must enter each folder to the include path:

   • Project ->Properties -> C/C++ Build -> Tab "Tool Settings" -> Directories: add the relevant include paths: e.g. "${workspace_loc:/gnucash/lib/libqof/backend}", ${workspace_loc:/gnucash/src/app-utils} etc. and C:\soft\gnome\include\gtk-2.0 and so on

   See also http://wiki.eclipse.org/CDT/User/FAQ#How_do_I_add_an_external_library_to_my_C.2B.2B_project.3F

There is much more support available:

• plugin for Subversion integration (subclipse). This is very helpful, because differences are highlighted in the editor.
• Scheme editor plugin: schemeway (You will also have to install "Eclipse Java development tools" and "Eclipse plug-in development environment" via Help->Software Updates->Available Software->Ganymede.)

Edit

Some useful hints for editing:

• CTRL+Shift+T: Open Element (function, variable, Macro etc)
• CTRL+Shift+R: Open file
• F3: open the definition of an element
• CTRL+Alt+h: open call hierarchy

... and much more...

Build (not to build)

Eclipse won’t be a good help for building. You are always faster if you make_install in a shell window for the directory tree you were editing. To avoid annoying warnings, you should turn off automatic build:

• Project -> Build automatically
• Preferences->Run/Debug->"build (if required) before launching".

Debug

You can use eclipse as a debugging interface. The idea is to attach eclipse to the running gnucash process.

1. Run->Open Debug Dialog ->"C/C++ Attach to local app" -> New
2. Select C:\soft\gnucash\inst\bin\gnucash-bin.exe
3. You must specify the path to your source folder: Path mapping "../../../repos" to "C:\soft\gnucash\repos"
4. Now start gnucash as usual from inst/bin (ignore warnings about errors in workspace)
5. Launch your debugging configuration in eclipse
6. Select the process to attach to (gnucash-bin.exe)
7. The process will be interrupted. Try if you can browse to gnc_ui_start_event_loop. If not start over with the Source tab (see step 3).
8. Make sure you have put some breakpoints in and hit Continue
9. If a breakpoint is encountered you can step through with F6, F5 etc., inspect variables and so on.